Center-plates for railway-cars.



J. A. PILCHER.

CENTER PLATES FQR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNEfi, 191s.

L09, 1 6 Patented Mar. 17, 1914.

FIG.

yfw Q QM Wktmaooeo a center JOHN A. PILOHER, OF ROANOKE, VIRGINIA.

CENTER-PLATES FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 17, 1914.

Application filed June 5, 1913. Serial No. 771,930.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN A. PILcrInn, a citizen of the United States.residing at Roanoke, in the county of Roanoke and State of Virginia,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Center-Plates forRailway-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to overcome the ditliculties that arenow encountered in the passage of railway cars over vertical curves inthe track.

As is well known, when a car having flat center plates is traveling oversuch a curve, it is necessary that the center plates adjust themselvesto this change of conditions. This is now ordinarily taken care of byone of two methods or by a combination of them. First, there may beenough deflection of the truck springs to take up the angularity, inwhich case the top and bottom center plates remain in their normalrelative positions. Second, one of the center plates may be tilted aboutthe other. Or, a combination of the two conditions may result.

For passenger equipment cars where there is a considerable amount ofdeflection in the springs between the truck bolster and the equalizerbars no seriousresults have ordinarily been experienced, but in order tokeep the Wheel loads more readily constant, ball shaped center platesare employed. For freight equipment, however, spherical shaped centerplates have been found undesirable because, unless the side bearings arekept neatly adjusted, the car body will rock excessively laterally, andwhen one side of the car body is down on the corresponding side bearingof the truck the weight of the car body exerts no tendency to return thebody to its normal position on the center plates as is the case with atcenter plates, also, with spherical shaped lates, there is moreliability of the car loo y leaving the trucks than with fiat centerplates. For freight cars with ordinary four wheel trucks, the firstmethod mentioned above has heretofore been employed and it hassuccessfully taken care of the irregularity. This is because the trucksprings even though having very limited deflection before they becomesolid. are regularly placed either on or near the vertical center lineof the truck, longitudinally of the car, at which point a very smalldeflection will permit the angularity of the 4, 1913, the matter of therocking between the top and bottom center plates in passing over avertical curve becomes a necessity, because in a truck of this orsimilar types the deflection of the springs is limited and in additionthe springs are located at considerable distance out from the centerplate. Hence to correct a small angularity between the center platesdemands an amount of deflection of the bolster springs that can not besecured in ordinary construction. The result is that the one centerplate is actually tilted about the other, throwing the point of contactto one side of the center plate. This in turn causes excessive changesin the wheel and spring loadings that are liable to cause the failure ofthe parts so overloaded. These conditions are all the more marked intrucks for heavier capacity cars whichrequire a center plate of largerdiameter and area. i

To the end that these difiiculties may be overcome. my inventionconsists of the formation of parts as hereinafter described and finallyclaimed.

In the drawing, Figure 1 represents in longitudinal sectional view thecenter plates of my invention in which the top center plate rests on thebottom one in its normal position, Fig. 2 is a similar view in which thebottom plate is tilted as in passing over a vertical curve. Fig. 3 is aninverted plan view of the top center plate as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.'Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a modified form of myinvention and Fig. 5 a plan view of the bottom center plate of the same.Fig. 6 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a car on a verticalcurve in the track, in which the center plates of Figs. 1, 2, and 3 areshown in their relative positions for such a condition of track.

Referring to the drawings in which like parts are given the samereference numbers wherever they occur, 1 represents a car having centersills 2. To the center sills is secured in any substantial manner thetop center plate 3. This top center plate 3. as v of the two platesrocks on the other longitudinally of the car it will be at theintersection of the two planes, at 4, instead of at the extreme outeredge as in ordinary circular, flat bottom center plates, This plane 5,while shown and described as being upwardly inclined from the point 4,might in reality be a vertical plane at right angles to the horizontalbottom at 4, or in fact at any angle that will give a line of contactacross the other center plate,-transversely of the car. In addition tomore nearly equalizing the wheel and spring loads in the trucks, thisconstruction will concentrate the center plate load at the line 4,extending transversely of the car, from which it can be much morereadily transferred to the transverse members 6 of the truck bolster 7than if it were concentrated at substantially a point near the extremeouter edge of'the bottom center plate 8 as would be the case were acomplete, circular, top plate rocked on a flat bottom one, the rockingof the complete circular plate on the other being the same as tilting acoin on a flat surface. The projection 9 on the bottom center plate 8and the pocket 10 in the top center plate 3 may be of any of thecustomary designs, their purpose being to provide means for preventingthe car from readily leaving the trucks. At 11 is also provided avertical flange extending for the full circumference about the bottomcenter plate. This flange 11 also aids in keeping the two center platestogether and in addition forms means for retaining grease or otherlubricant between the two plates. Transversely of the car the two centerplates are formed identically as fiat center plates, so that there willbe no excessive rocking on the side bearings and the weight of the carbody will tend to return the body to its normal position on the centerplates. In Figs. 4 and 5 I show a modified form of my invention in whichthe top center me ias plate is made flat for its entire area, the bottomplate being cut away ateach end at 12 on downwardly inclined planes 13,the mechanical results being identical with those obtained in the deviceas shown in Figs. 1,

would not correct that difficulty of the pres-.

ent form. of construct-ion.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

l. The combination with a car of a circular, fiat faced center platehaving a segmental portion of the flat face cut away at the ends,longitudinally of the car, substantially as described p 2. Thecombination with acar of a circular, fiat faced center platehavinga-segmental portion Oftllfi flat face cut away at the ends,longitudinally. of the car, along an. inclined plane at an acute anglewith the plane of the flat bottom, substantially as described,

3. The combination with a car of a circular, flat bottom. top centerplate having a segmental portion of the flat bottom cut away at theends, longitudinally of the car, along an inclined plane at an acuteangle with the plane of the said flat bottom, and a circular lowercenter plate having a flat top face adapted to support the said topcenter'plate, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof 1t affix my signature in presence of two witnesses,

JOHN A, PILCHER, Witnesses 1 B W, WELLS, Roi? K. Baown.

